Eastern Nile Basin countries seek new ideas about developing the river's resources, writes Gamal Nkrumah On Wednesday, the eastern Nile Basin states -- Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan -- met in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. Strengthening cooperation between the three eastern countries topped the agenda of the two-day meeting. Sharing the waters of the Nile might be problematic but it is no time bomb, official circles in the three countries concur. If the Nile is one hot potato for Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, consolidating economic ties is another. The political will, however, to deepen relations is growing palpably stronger. President Hosni Mubarak dispatched Egypt's Minister of Water and Irrigation Mahmoud Abu Zeid to Ethiopia and Uganda -- a southern Nile Basin country -- a fortnight ago. Abu Zeid headed Egypt's delegation at the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting. A new approach to tackling the challenges of the Nile is currently underway. The onus is on confidence-building, economic integration and consolidating trade and economic ties among Nile Basin countries. Egypt is striving to extend its reach into the heart of the Nile Basin by understanding in more depth the problems faced by the upstream countries -- problems such as soil erosion, deforestation, desertification, erratic water supplies and crippling power shortages. The eastern Nile Basin states are hoping that they can mirror their success in improving ties by creating the right environment for ironing out all outstanding differences on Nile water sharing. In the past couple of years, bilateral relations between Egypt and Ethiopia on the one hand and Ethiopia and Sudan on the other have significantly improved. Egypt and Sudan have also patched up political differences and the two countries are currently enjoying excellent bilateral relations which had previously fallen to an all-time low after the assassination attempt on President Mubarak's life in Addis Ababa in 1995 and for which Sudanese-backed Egyptian and other Arab militant Islamists were held suspect. The world's longest river springs from two rather inauspicious landmarks in the backwaters of the Ethiopian Highlands and the Great Lakes region of Africa; namely the sacred spring of Sakala in Ethiopia and the springs in Kangosi hills, Burundi. The Nile Basin falls into two spheres: the eastern and the southern. Egypt receives some 86 per cent of its water from the eastern Nile Basin, predominantly from Ethiopia. Only 14 per cent of Egypt's water comes from the southern Nile Basin grouping the equatorial African nations of the Great Lakes region -- Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. In recent years, Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan have made concerted efforts towards closer collaboration on Nile issues. Even though there are still outstanding differences on a number of questions -- including ways of exploiting the Nile waters -- the three countries currently enjoy a good working relationship over the Nile's waters and other issues. Egypt and Sudan have recently announced plans to establish an Egyptian-Sudanese company to develop Nile navigation. The announcement came a few weeks ahead of peace talks between the Sudanese government and the country's largest armed opposition group, the Sudan's People's Liberation Army (SPLA) scheduled to take place in Kenya on 25 June. Ethiopia, too, has been cultivating closer ties with Egypt. The Ethiopian Water Minister Shiseraw Jarso told Al-Ahram Weekly that bilateral discussions over the exploitation of Nile waters are "proceeding excellently". Egypt is taking a keen interest in the chronic environmental problems of Ethiopia, a country that has a population of 70 million and that has a higher population growth rate than Egypt's -- 3.5 per cent a year for Ethiopia compared with 2.8 per cent for Egypt. The Ethiopian minister stressed that technical experts agreed that the volume of water in the Blue Nile could be dramatically increased if the serious environmental problem of soil erosion in the Ethiopian Highlands is contained. The Ethiopian minister discounted the possibility of water wars, emphasising that such a possibility was "highly unlikely". Nile Basin countries currently use a mere five- six per cent of the river's waters. Nile Basin states should consider the possibility that the economic benefits exceed the drawbacks. The Ethiopian minister said that an important aspect of the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting is to come up with proposals for projects to be presented to Western donors. An estimated $140 million were earmarked by donors for the implementation of projects in the Nile Basin, of which $35 million were set aside for the eastern Nile Basin. Ethiopians have no hidden agenda, the minister assured; rather they want Egypt to participate more fully in Ethiopia's development. While the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting focussed on the eastern Nile Basin, developments in the southern Nile Basin are also of grave concern. Egypt, Ethiopia and Tanzania have put forward new ideas about the most appropriate use of Nile waters. Upstream countries want to use the waters of the Nile for large-scale projects which, they say, will not necessarily reduce the volume of water that reaches Egypt and Sudan. Still, several Egyptian water experts expressed concern about the true intentions of the Ethiopians. These worries have in part been fuelled by certain newspaper articles in upstream countries. In an article published in The Addis Tribune this week, Gebre Tsadik Degefu outlined the lopsided history of the Nile treaties. Ethiopia "is not obligated to ask the permission of any state, be it riparian or otherwise, to use its natural resources in accordance with international law", the writer warned in a direct reference to Egypt. His perspective was typical of many people in the upper riparian states, including Ethiopia. "The 1959 agreement between [Egypt] and Sudan has no binding effect on Ethiopia whatsoever. Ethiopia is entitled under international law to use the waters of the Blue Nile and its tributaries that arise in her territory for the economic development and welfare of her own people." Such talk is common among Nile Basin states and by no means restricted to the Ethiopians. "We have a problem in Tanzania. Our hydroelectricity capacity is inadequate. We need to develop the hydroelectric sector in order to electrify villages in rural areas," Tanzania's Minister of Water Resources Edward Lowassa told Al- Ahram Weekly. The Tanzanian minister stressed that only 15 per cent of Egypt's water comes from the White Nile -- the southern Nile Basin, including Tanzania. Most of Egypt's water comes from Ethiopia's Blue Nile -- the eastern Nile Basin. Tanzanians have other reasons for taking a more benevolent view of harnessing their rivers' hydroelectric power potential. The Tanzanian government has launched several plans to exploit Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh water reservoir, for the provision of drinking water and for hydroelectric purposes. The Kihansi hydropower project and the Mtera Dam are prime examples. Tanzania is one of Africa's fastest growing gold exporting countries. Indeed, Tanzania is now the third largest gold producer in Africa after South Africa and Ghana. But the exploitation of the country's gold resources has lead to disastrous environmental consequences. Toxic chemicals used to extract gold poison people, livestock and wildlife. Lowassa cited the example of two gold-producing Tanzanian towns with growing water needs. "Kahama is the fastest growing town in Tanzania because of the presence of gold mines. It is the women who collect water. They walk between 10 and 15 kilometres to fetch water. It is too long a distance and such hazardous work," Lowassa said. "Shinyanga and Kahama are situated in the driest parts of the country. They have no access to rivers and they have no underground water because it is polluted with dangerous chemicals and metals used in the gold-extracting industry and therefore what little water there is, is unfit for human consumption. Many people go without potable water. There are a lot of people who go without water." The minister also said that his country suffered, like Ethiopia, from periodic and prolonged droughts and therefore needed to build dams, create artificial water reservoirs and generate hydroelectric power. "We have not received enough rain for the past two years. We cannot use our Kihansi and Mtera. Kihansi is fine, but Mtera has no water at all," he said. "So we decided two years ago to get water from Lake Victoria." The Tanzanian authorities insist that the country's Nile policy has not changed since the country gained independence from Britain in 1962. "These treaties were entered without the consent of the people of the colonies. They were entered by the British and they had no mandate to speak on our behalf. We were a protectorate, not a colony. They had no right whatsoever to decide for us. We had no choice in the matter. This has been our position since we gained independence in 1962," Lowasa said. Under these treaties, Egypt assumed the right to veto any construction projects that would adversely affect the country's interests. Upstream countries resent the inference. Still, the Nile Basin countries continue discussions on a new legal framework for sharing and exploiting the river's water resources. The Blue Nile cascading down from Ethiopia provides most of Egypt's water. Nile Basin countries have come a long way. Today, more than ever, there is a greater openness about prickly questions regarding the sharing of Nile waters and a determination by all states concerned not to let tensions spin out of control.
